Category: Alumni News

“Acts of Allegiance is a wonderful brew of a book about politics, family, violence, love, betrayal – life, in other words. Peter Cunningham has written a winner.”
– John Banville

Paris: May, 1969. Scents of spring blossom, coffee and high-octane petrol. Irish diplomat Marty Ransom has been summoned to meet Charles J. Haughey, the Irish Minister for Finance – what’s decided between them will change the course of Irish history. The Minister wants a go-between with the new IRA faction in the North: he knows a key player is Marty’s cousin Ignatius. He has no idea Marty is reporting to MI5 in Dublin. As the deadly endgame draws near, Marty must choose between the past and all he holds dear.

‘Show up’ the UCD APEP Summer Show, took place on the 1st of June, with the third cycle of ‘Rising Home’ launched by Fr. Peter McVerry. A fond farewell was also given to Gerry Cahill, who has been teaching in the school for many years and really has made an outstanding contribution to the life and learning in Richview.

OxyMem Ltd, a UCD School of Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering spin-out company, and a leading innovator in energy efficient wastewater treatment, today announced that it has added Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV) to its growing shareholder base.

KHADIJA MU’AZZAM, a final year UCD Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering student, was, last night (March 23 2017), announced as the winner of the inaugural Engineers Ireland Talking Engineers Competition, at Engineers Ireland headquarters in Clyde Road.

The competition was open to final year Engineering students, from all third-level institutions in Ireland, with each institution invited to nominate a single representative. Candidates were required to make a 12-minute presentation on The Role of the Engineer in Ireland Today.

ENBIO has announced a European Space Agency (ESA) contract worth €650,000 to develop advanced surface coatings for Neosat, Europe’s next generation of telecommunications satellites. ENBIO, a graduate of NovaUCD, is working with ESA as part of its Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems programme (ARTES).

The aim of the Neosat platform is to create the next generation satellite platforms and allow European manufacturers to capture over half the world’s satcom market between now and 2030, potentially worth €25 billion.

The announcement was made during an Enterprise Ireland trade mission visit to the European Space Agency Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, led by John Halligan TD, Minister for Training, Skills and Innovation.

UCD Engineering graduates, Colin Keogh and Dr Shane Keaveney, founded ‘The Rapid Foundation’ in 2014 and since then, have gone on to achieve great things.

Recently, Colin and Shane were named two of ‘Ireland’s Ten Outstanding Young People’ by Junior Chamber International Ireland. This award recognises those who excel in their field and create positive change.

The Rapid Foundation brings 3D printers, low-cost electronics like Raspberry Pi and virtual reality technology to people and communities around the world. The Rapid Foundation currently supplies technology and training to communities in Mexico, Rwanda, Uganda and India. Once the training is complete, communities are given full ownership of the equipment. This allows them to invent, design and create solutions to issues affecting them.

During his recent visit to Ireland, the President of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Germany, Professor Reimund Neugebauer presented the Fraunhofer Thaler Award to Professor Gerry Byrne in recognition of his “outstanding leadership and significant achievements in the field of applied research”. This is a wonderful honour for Prof. Byrne as it is thought that he is the first Irish person to receive the Fraunhofer Thaler Award.

Prof. Gerry Byrne is a Senior Advisor to the President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. He is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University College Dublin and former College Principal and Dean of Engineering at UCD.

UCD Architecture graduates, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara from Grafton Architects received the “Outstanding Achievement for Architecture” at this year’s Building and Architect of the Year Awards 2017 (BAYA).

This award is in recognition of the impressive portfolio of buildings of note designed by Grafton Architects. These buildings include; the Solstice Arts Centre, Meath; the Parson’s Building, Trinity College, Dublin; the Government Department of Finance for the Office of Public Works in Dublin; a new building for the Università Bocconi in Milan, Italy.

Earlier this year, Yvonne and Shelley were appointed by Paolo Barrata, President of La Biennale, to be the Curators of the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018 and won the RIBA International Prize for their design of theUniversidad de Ingeniería y Tecnologia (UTEC) building in Lima, Peru.

Yvonne and Shelley both graduated from UCD with a BArch in 1974 and were 2015 UCD Alumni Awardees.

On the 12th of June, 2017 the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Mr Reece Smyth, Chargé d’affaires of the US Embassy in Ireland, announced 38 new Fulbright Irish Awardees.

Recipients include students, academics and professionals from 15 HEIs across Ireland and Europe. These Awardees will go to top US institutions to study and collaborate with experts in their field.

The College of Engineering and Architecture were proud to learn that two of their graduates, Dr Tom Curran and Dr Elizabeth Shotton were one of the 38 recipients for 2017.

Fulbright Picture Conor McCabe Photography

Dr Tom Curran is a lecturer in the School of Biosystems and Food Engineering and Director of the MSc Environmental Technology Programme at University College Dublin. As a Fulbright-TechImpact Scholar, he will be hosted by North Carolina State University to develop an early warning system for sewer network blockages caused by ‘fatbergs’. In recent years, Dr Curran has developed a European wide reputation as a specialist in ‘fatbergs’ and has made frequent media contributions on this issue.

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There is no better training for students than in Richview, the home of architecture in UCD. This space includes design studios, a well-equipped workshop and building laboratory, exhibition spaces and the most extensive architectural library in the country.

Students are also in the most capable hands here, among the expert faculty are Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Royal Gold Medal 2015 awardees Sheila O’Donnell and Professor John Tuomey, both of whom are also graduates of the School.

A gift to the UCD Annual Fund can enable us to award scholarships to students who would typically be excluded from third level education.

Newman is a multi-storey mixture of the arts and social sciences. With lecture theatres that can house up to 500 students as well as smaller spaces for tutorials, students can share ideas with both their peers and their tutors. Whether it be current politics, history or literature there are a wide array of topics up for debate and discussion.

A gift to the UCD Annual Fund can enable us to award scholarships to students who would typically be excluded from third level education.

UCD also hopes to bring Newman in to the future with a regeneration project that aims to provide students with a student centered academic facility that strengthens the disciplines and schools identity.

The James Joyce Library receives on average one million visits per year. Behind these doors there is vast study space amongst hundreds of books and academic journals. The library’s special collections houses the first documentation of the Flight of the Earls, a letter written to Éamon de Valera as well as numerous manuscripts by some of Ireland’s most celebrated writers such as Frank McGuinness, Edna O’Brien, and Maeve Binchy.

The library’s doors remain open to our alumni long after they graduate, with many retaining membership, your support will enable us to continue to replenish our shelves and preserve our rich cultural heritage.

Redevelopment of the existing James Joyce Library aims to provide a range of modern study and active learning spaces with centralised student-facing support services, in addition to cultural, heritage and public engagement spaces.

The UCD Student Centre is home to the UCD Student Union which aims to promote student wellbeing on campus be it mental health, disability rights, mature students or accommodation support. The UCDSU provides free counselling services as well as running life skills courses for students suffering from depression or anxiety.

Each of the seven schools in the UCD College of Science engages in exciting and internationally recognised research. Research includes drug discovery, development and delivery which aim to identify biomarkers, novel therapeutic targets to guide drug development and target medicines toward specific populations.

Gifts to the UCD Annual Fund can enable us to provide scholarships to undergraduate students to study in the field of science which can lead onto working in areas of research that will benefit us all.

The UCD Sutherland School of Law is the largest law school in the country and opened its doors in 2013 but originally dates back to 1911. Notable alumni include Alumni Award winner Maeve O’Rourke (BCL 2009) who works closely with Dr Katherine O’Donnell and Claire McGettrick of UCD on the Justice for Magdalenes campaign.

Gifts to UCD’s Annual fund can enable us to provide scholarships to students from a variety of backgrounds that would typically exclude them from participating in third level education.